White red patterned binding with black title on the spine and front board. Photo of Hans C Andersen on the back board. Has an ‘Natal Provincal’ library stamp.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

 Brings together popular and lesser-known works by the beloved writer of fairy tales and includes biographical notes

Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogs, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.

Andersen’s fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes, have been translated into more than 125 languages. They have become culturally embedded in the West’s collective consciousness, readily accessible to children but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. His most famous fairy tales include “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Nightingale”, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “The Red Shoes”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “The Snow Queen”, “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Little Match Girl”, and “Thumbelina”. His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films.

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805. He had a stepsister named Karen. His father, also named Hans, considered himself related to nobility (his paternal grandmother had told his father that their family had belonged to a higher social class, but investigations have disproved these stories). Although it has been challenged, a persistent speculation suggests that Andersen was an illegitimate son of King Christian VIII. Danish historian Jens Jørgensen supported this idea in his book H.C. Andersen, en sand myte [a true myth].

Hans Christian Andersen was baptised on 15 April 1805 in Saint Hans Church (St John’s Church) in Odense, Denmark. His certificate of birth was not drafted until November 1823, according to which six Godparents were present at the baptising ceremony: Madam Sille Marie Breineberg, Maiden Friederiche Pommer, shoemaker Peder Waltersdorff, journeyman carpenter Anders Jørgensen, hospital porter Nicolas Gomard, and royal hatter Jens Henrichsen Dorch.

Andersen’s father, who had received an elementary school education, introduced his son to literature, reading to him the Arabian Nights. Andersen’s mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, was an illiterate washerwoman. Following her husband’s death in 1816, she remarried in 1818. Andersen was sent to a local school for poor children where he received a basic education and had to support himself, working as an apprentice to a weaver and, later, to a tailor. At fourteen, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing.

Jonas Collin, director of the Royal Danish Theatre, held great affection for Andersen and sent him to a grammar school in Slagelse, persuading King Frederick VI to pay part of the youth’s education. Andersen had by then published his first story, “The Ghost at Palnatoke’s Grave” (1822). Though not a stellar pupil, he also attended school at Elsinore until 1827.

He later said that his years at this school were the darkest and most bitter years of his life. At one particular school, he lived at his schoolmaster’s home. There he was abused and was told that it was done in order “to improve his character”. He later said that the faculty had discouraged him from writing, which then resulted in a depression.

The works of Hans Andersen became known throughout the world. Rising from a poor social class, the works made him into an acclaimed author. Royal families of the world were patrons of the writings including the monarchy of Denmark, the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. An unexpected invitation from King Christian IX to the royal palace would not only entrench the Andersen folklore in Danish royalty but would inexplicably be transmitted to the Romanov dynasty in Russia.